Modern vehicles such as cars and boats increasingly contain embedded devices called “electronic control units” for improving the performance of these vehicles and the experience of the passengers within them. Manufacturers and others may embed electronic control units within vehicles to more accurately control and regulate lower-level engine and mechanical functionality. For example, electronic control units may control and regulate engine component activation, temperature, and/or performance level. Other electronic control units may provide higher level, and less critical, functionality, such as controlling a radio, stereo system, television system, navigation system, and/or voice recognition interface.
In some systems, manufacturers and others may test the performance of electronic control units by embedding them within vehicles and then operating the vehicles to check how the electronic control units respond and function. Alternatively, manufacturers and others may input generic commands, which are specified by the manufacturer, to ensure that the electronic control unit performs the expected function in response to the command. These safety testing procedures may both be inefficient (e.g., because they involve embedding the electronic control unit within an operating vehicle) and incomplete (e.g., because they simply test whether the electronic control unit, in relative isolation, performs specified functions in response to corresponding commands according to manufacturer specifications). Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for evaluating electronic control units.